The Last Builder

by C G Cooper

  “She had KV,” her father said.

  Katherine felt the whole world drop away around her. The name of the disease was a sickness to the ear. Her knees nearly gave out when she heard it thick on the air.

  “We’re safe here, in the city,” she said, fighting the demon of denial. “They said it couldn’t get through the quarantine. They said we’d never get sick.”

  Her father placed both hands on Katherine’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

  His next words made her physically ill.

  “They lied.”

  4

  Katherine

  Katherine shrugged out of her father’s touch. “What the hell are you talking about? We’re going to be fine.”

  “Yes, we’re going to be fine, Katherine.”

  She began to hate herself for her momentary admiration of him. “What are you saying? You're not making sense.”

  He made an attempt to grab her hands. “Katherine, listen to me. I’m immune. And so are you.”

  In his eyes was the sincerity she'd seen a glimpse of just a few moments before, deeply entwined in the quality of mercy that still stirred there.

  “I found out a long time ago I was immune. Two in a billion survive KV. If you have the right genetic markers, it can’t kill you.”

  “And me?” Katherine asked.

  “We had you tested as soon as you were born. We went to a private doctor, a friend of the family. Someone who was working illegally on the strain, trying to figure out its origins. Back then, the government was locking people up for what they called unsanctioned experimentation, sentencing them for working on the virus in secret. They didn’t want anyone to come up with results they didn’t approve of.”

  “So...the government lied?” She turned to look out the window, peering down into the courtyard. She envied those flowers, so bright and colorful. They knew their purpose in life. What did she know other than the walls of the academy?

  “The government controls the narrative,” her father said, stepping up beside her. “They set up the quarantine to ease people’s minds, but by that time, the virus had spread to nearly everyone.”

  “But, the cities are safer.”

  “Only because they have more medical supplies, more resources. They can slow the virus’s progress, but never stop it altogether.”

  A swell of anger rose in her. Her palms grew moist as she kneaded her fists. Then as the horror dawned on her, she sat down on the bed for fear of passing out.

  “You knew,” she said miserably. She was shaking. “You had to know.”

  “Know what?”

  “That she was going to die.”

  The pause before he answered rendered everything he could have said after it obsolete. And her tears fell freely again.

  “Your mother was adamant about staying on Earth. She refused to spread the virus to the other colonies. Plus, she wanted you to lead a normal life.”

  “She lied to me,” Katherine said, feeling dazed. Her world had already shifted under her feet, but now it was falling out from beneath her. “Not today, Dad.” She sneered the word. “You’re not going to smear my mother today.”

  “She was protecting you, dammit. Can’t you see that? There’s no smear. She wanted you to have a childhood, to know what hope for a better future felt like. She didn’t want you to constantly worry about when she was going to die.”

  “She lied to me too, then. You both did.”

  “I know you don’t understand this yet, but we did this for you,” he replied.

  “Stop telling me things like that. I’m not too young and stupid to understand!”

  “You’re a child. You’re my child. And I love you, Katherine. I know you can’t bring yourself to accept it, and that’s fine. But you are my child. And we need to leave here as soon as possible.”

  “What’s the point?” she said indignantly. “If we’re immune, what’s the point of leaving?”

  “Your mother was the first person inside quarantine to die of the virus so... publicly. There will be an inquiry, but they can’t keep it a secret for long. Once the general population realizes they’ve been fed lies for so many years, they’re going to rebel. And with rebellion comes riots. You may be immune to the virus, but you’re not immune to violence. Earth is going to become a lot more dangerous.”

  “Tiffany,” she started to say, and then the realization hit her.

  “You can’t.”

  She looked at her father’s face. She hadn’t noticed there was pain there.

  “I need to save her.”

  He shook his head and then took her in his arms. She let her tears soak into his shirt.

  He let her go for a moment. He was crying too. “I know you don’t believe this,” he said, “but I’ve only ever thought of you.”

  “Then why did you stay away all this time?” She felt like a child in that moment, helpless and vulnerable. Stupid and weak.

  “They test you whenever you take a trip to Earth. Everyone is infected anyway, and the virus had already begun to spread off-planet before they realized it. The devices are rigged, Katherine. Do you understand? They’re rigged to show a negative result so as not to incite panic. But the scanners are also set to detect those with the genetic markers for immunity. These people would be taken in for questioning, and then they’d disappear. Subject to a life of vivisection, bled dry trying to find a cure for the virus.”

  “But you made it past the scanners,” Katherine said.

  “Nanite technology. Temporary, but strong enough to trick the scanner. I was retrofitted a long time ago. It cost me a hefty chunk of money.”

  She didn’t want to believe him, to think that every time he came to visit her on Earth, he was risking detection, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that urged her to believe him anyway. She’d seen her own mother succumb to the virus, and within the city limits. It existed here, it had to. And it was only a matter of time before other people began to drop.

  At that moment, Katherine's wall screen came to life, and both she and her father automatically turned toward it in anticipation. A female reporter with short, black hair stared into the camera lens with a mixture of confusion and determination in her eyes.

  “This is a mandatory public briefing, coming to you from Channel E1. A body has been found in District 63’s central marketplace. Jonah Stevens, 43, collapsed just under an hour ago on his way home from work, witnesses say. One woman, who had been walking behind Stevens as he fell, said, quote, ‘One minute he was walking along, minding his own business, and then boom, he was on the ground.’ Witnesses say about half a dozen authorities arrived on the scene with protective gear before removing Stevens’s body.”

  The camera cut to a split screen where it showed two news anchors behind a desk, looking on worriedly. Someone must’ve signaled them from behind the camera because both simultaneously straightened out their expressions.

  “Have the authorities determined the cause of death, Charlotte?” the man on the left asked.

  “No official word has been given yet, Robert, but of course, rumors are certainly circulating. Sudden death without any outward signs of injury certainly has some witnesses wondering if this could be an outbreak of The Keresian Virus within the city’s limits. We want to remind our viewers that this is merely uninformed speculation.”

  “And if our audience will remember,” said Robert, clearing his throat before continuing, “there has never been an instance of The Keresian Virus inside the walls of our quarantine, and authorities take every precaution to ensure our walls remain steadfast against the spread of this disease.”

  Katherine could tell the man was reading a prepared statement, the official line.

  “It’s happening already,” her father said. “Don’t believe that idiot party line about being safe inside the quarantine. They won’t be able to keep this covered up for too much longer. You saw it. People are already asking the right questions. Denial or no denial, the publi
c is going to demand concrete answers. All hell is going to break loose. And I don’t want us to be around when it does.”

  “We really have to leave, don’t we?” she asked numbly.

  “We have to go before they ground all transportation off-planet.”

  “How?”

  “Quickly. Pack a bag. I’ll make arrangements.”

  Katherine hesitated for a moment. She felt as if she were on the edge of a cliff, looking down at a great expanse of water below. She could back away from the edge now, stay on solid ground, and rest assured that she would never be faced with this choice again.

  Or she could take a leap of faith into the unknown. She was having a hard time admitting it to herself, but her father was right—if people knew The Keresian Virus had breached the quarantine, if they knew it had been here all along, it would incite panic. Without her parents, she would either have to fend for herself or stay with Tiffany and her family. The idea didn’t sound so bad, but she couldn’t help but admit she was curious to know what was just beneath the surface of that water.

  She felt her father staring at her, and she looked up at him for a moment. His eyes were wide, but not panicked. She found she was capable of feeling a certain tranquility around him. She nodded once, quickly, then began to pack. She clutched the pendant that already sat around her neck. The stone was made from asteroid crystal. Her father had given it to her for her sixteenth birthday. She'd never taken it off.

  The reality, the permanence of leaving, crept into her thoughts. She had no choice but to give it pause. Leaving was involuntary.

  She started at the sound of her father's voice. “You’ve got everything?”

  “Almost,” she said, trying to avoid all traces of panic. She paused and reached over to her bed, pulling a small teddy bear off her pillow and quickly throwing it inside her suitcase, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

  “I got you that when you were born,” he said, staring at his Omnis.

  “It reminds me of Mom.”

  Her father put away his Omnis, cleared his throat and pulled the closed suitcase off the bed. His eyes widened as it landed on the floor with a thunk. It would have been comical under different circumstances.

  “We can’t arouse suspicion,” he said as they made their way to her door. He let his hand hover an inch away from the sensor pad and turned back to her. “If anyone thinks we’re escaping, we could be detained. Then we’ll never get off-planet.”

  She swallowed hard and nodded. A growing sense of hot dread worked its way up from her stomach and into her throat. She swallowed it back down. She didn’t want him to see how frightened she actually was. Indeed, her own potential to lose control and succumb to fear frightened her.

  He pressed his hand to the sensor. The door swished open and they stepped out into a relatively empty hallway. A lump rose in her throat. Who knew how long it would take until she was allowed to return to Earth? And even then, would she ever see these halls again? At one point, she had entertained the idea of becoming a professor just like her mother.

  They moved quickly through the building, across a small courtyard, and back inside, heading not toward the exit from the school, but down a wing where Katherine had most of her classes.

  “Where are we going?”

  Her father pointed ahead to a wooden door, one of the very few in this building, slightly ajar. Her brow creased in confusion.

  “What for?”

  “I left my bag inside,” he said, giving a one-knuckled knock and pushing the door open.

  Her father spoke in a tone she had never heard him use before. It was closed off and cold, almost hateful. It made her clamp her mouth shut.

  “I didn’t realize you had a guest, Professor. I apologize.”

  “No need, no need,” Professor Witwick said. “I trust you remember Tobias Greenwood?”

  “Of course.” There was no warmth in his voice.

  She hated the way he angled his body, as if intentionally keeping the view hidden from her. Or her from it.

  “Please, come in,” the other man said. “I’d love to catch up with you, Cutler. Or is it Cope?” The man laughed jovially.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have time to stay and chat, Tobias. I just dropped in to pick up my bag.”

  “Come on,” Tobias said. His tone was one of baiting.

  Cutler paused for a moment, and then nodded. He turned to Katherine, and she saw the hardness in his eyes as he shuffled her along the wall to wait there with her bag.

  “Do not move,” he said, now turning that tone of voice on her. She shrank against the wall and his eyes softened a little bit. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

  “Who is that?” Katherine whispered.

  “Someone I knew a long time ago.” He breathed deeply. “And the last person I wanted to see today.” He absentmindedly kissed her on the forehead, like it was something he’d been programmed to do. Then he walked through the door and shut it behind him.

  5

  Cutler

  The door shut behind him like a prison gate. Professor Witwick gave a pained, sympathetic smile, then shifted his gaze to Tobias.

  The rivalry between the two men, as everyone who knew them knew, boiled down to two things: Cutler’s winning Victoria as a wife, and his career as a scout for potential terrafarms. Although Tobias was a decorated officer, he had never left Earth for longer than a few months here and there, and then only for press ops.

  For Cutler, Tobias’s crime against him was far more basic—he was an asshole.

  “Cope,” Tobias said, not bothering to stand. Instead, he leaned back in his chair with a smug expression on his face. His blond hair was slicked back. His blue eyes were like shards of glass.

  “Toby,” Cutler said, noting the way the man’s eyes narrowed at the nickname.

  “I heard your last mission was a rough one,” Tobias said, regaining his composure quickly.

  Cutler stiffened against the memory of his trip to Orcus. He could still feel the heat of the fire on his face and hear the screams of the men and women he was unable to rescue. The choices he’d made that day had gouged a chunk out of his soul and left a gaping hole to suppurate. And here was Tobias Greenwood, rubbing it in his face.

  “There aren’t any comforts in space like there are on Earth, Toby. You’re lucky you have such an easy job down here. My wife thought so too.”

  Tobias lost his grin this time. “My job is anything but easy, let me assure you.”

  “Oh, I’m sure. What is it you do now? Inspector of Hygiene?”

  “I’m the Director of Municipal Border Security and Safety Protocols. It’s my job to assess any actual threats to this city.”

  “Ah. And?”

  “And what?”

  “Are there any?”

  Tobias cocked his head to the side and smiled. “To be determined.”

  Professor Witwick had been watching the exchange in silence, having stood when Cutler first walked in. Now, he straightened the stack of papers in front of him.

  “Tobias was asking me about Victoria,” said Wick.

  “A tragedy,” said Tobias. Cutler could almost hear the relief in the man’s voice. At least dead, Victoria was no longer there to wave before him as a sign of triumph.

  “Do you know what happened to her? Nobody will give me a straight answer. I thought maybe you’d know, being Assistant Safety Supervisor.”

  “Director of Municipal Border Security and Safety Protocols. I know nothing more than anyone else. And I only meant it was a tragedy that she died so young, single, and without tasting all the fruits of life.”

  “That’s a wonderful sentiment,” Cutler said, hit teeth close to gritting.

  “Cutler,” said Wick.

  “You could print that out and put it on greeting cards,” Cutler continued.

  “Is that so?” Tobias batted back.

  “Tobias, please,” said Wick, raising the authoritarian tone he could still muster to settle these two. “The woman deser
ves our respect.”

  “Of course,” said Tobias. “I’m sorry for your loss, Cope.”

  Cutler ground his teeth, but before he could utter a retort he’d probably regret, the professor walked around his desk and placed a kind but firm hand on Tobias’s shoulder.

  “Thank you again for stopping by, Tobias. I wish you had time for more than just cursory visits, but I know how busy you are. I must speak with Cope now. If you find out anything else about Victoria, I’m sure you realize we would all love to put our thoughts to rest on the matter.”

  “Of course, professor,” Tobias said, keeping his gaze locked on Cutler, a sickly grin playing around his lips. He broke eye contact only to shake the professor’s forearm, before slithering up to Cutler, arm extended.

  Cutler grasped the other man’s hand. It was tight, nails digging.

  The man let go of Cutler’s hand and slapped him on the back. “We should meet up again, old friend. Catch up, reminisce over a drink.”

  “Of course, Toby. We’ll talk all about Victoria. I’ll tell you about outer space. When are you free?”

  “We’ll talk. You’ll be around, won’t you?”

  “Not going anywhere. I’m just taking my daughter to a friend’s house on the other side of the city for a while. I don’t particularly enjoy this side of town.”

  “So close to her final exams? Isn’t that a little irresponsible?”

  Cutler hesitated. Leave it to Tobias to know what year Katherine was in. He hated that this man had been keeping tabs on Victoria, and therefore knew more about Katherine than he’d ever want any other man to know.

  “She’s gotten an extension, given her mother’s death,” said Wick. “It was my suggestion to take her out of town for a while. Bereavement time.”